I want to know if anyone on this forum has installed in-the-boom furling, and if so which system did you select, and after using it, what do you consider to be its plusses and minuses?
I am 82 and Nancy is 71. We LOVE our C-34 Pleiades in particular, and sailing in general. However, with each passing year things that were easy twenty years ago become slightly more difficult. Rather than sell our beloved Pleiades and go over to "the dark side" (viz. powerboating), I am looking at ways to make sailing easier, without compromising on performance, or spending vast amounts of money. I do not like in-the-mast mainsail systems because they do not allow proper horizontal battens to maintain mainsail shape. In-the-boom systems do not suffer from this problem, but can be rather expensive. I am currently checking out Furl Boom, Pro-Furl, Schaefer, and Leisure Furl.
As an example, simply raising the C-34 mainsail using our starboard coach-roof winch now gets me winded, so instead I go to the mast and manually "sweat" the main halyard while Nancy takes up the slack in the cockpit. Then, I return to the cockpit to crank up the last few feet on our self-tailing coach roof starboard winch. Dropping the mainsail in a stiff wind involves again going up onto the coach roof, alternately flaking a heavy, flapping mainsail, securing it to the boom with sail ties, and later covering it with Pleiades mainsail cover. None of these tasks are especially difficult, but they can be exhausting at my age. I have thought about converting the starboard coach roof winch to an electric version, but that is also rather expensive, and the motor would also significantly diminish head-room on entering the quarterberth. Recently I have looked into the WinchRite system which is basically a geared, battery powered portable motor. Presumably, the WinchRite unit can raise a mainsail the size and weight of a C-34's about four times before needing to be re-charged. Has anyone on this forum purchased one, and if so, how do you like it.
I wish I were 21 all over again - for many reasons - and did not need any of this "stuff". Unfortunately, I am not, and if such devices are not TOO expensive, and can help Nancy and I continue to sail for another 3-5 years, then I will gladly install and use them.
Dr. Paul F. Jacobs
Pleiades
1990 Mk 1.5 No. 1068
Wickford, RI